Missouri EUtb Campaign Tracts, 

NUMBER ONE- 



ADDRESS 



TO THE 





OF THE 



UNITED STATES. 



Dedicated to Working Men Every-Where. 



PUBLISHED BY THE ■' ^ISSOURI CLUB," 

Headquarters, Temple Building, 

COR. FIFTH AXD WALNUT STREETS, 

ST. LOUIS. 



ADDRESS TO THE 

LABOR REFORMERS 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 

?I V 

STRIKES A EUROPEAN REMEDY. 

The rupture called " Strikes " so prevalent in the 
several countries of Europe, especially in that work- 
shop of the world, England, has been openly intro- 
duced for the first time into the United States in the 
year of grace 1872. 

IN A REPUBLIC AN UNMIXED EVIL. 

The disagreement which begets these quarrels is 
pregnant with unmixed evil, and the arrival of the 
invader on the shores of the Republic is as untoward 
as the visit of any of the choleras of Asia. 

THE TRUE MODE OF REDRESS IN A REPUBLIC. 

Nor is the mode of the redress of social or political 
wrong the same in the British Monarchy and in the 
American Republic ; the labor of this country, that 
is, the vast majority of the people thereof, holds that 
edged sword, the ballot, in their hands, to vindicate 
their rights authoritatively, a privilege denied the 
great mass of British subjects ; hence strikes are 
necessarily familiar in England, being the only mode 
of the expression of their dissent left them, whilst in 
our country they are not merely a novelty but a 
mistake. 

THE GREAT STRIKE OF AMERICAN LABOR. 

The great strike of American Labor, constitu- 
tional and appropriate, is to be made in November, 
1872, at the quadrennial election, when the people 
as a whole emphatically declare themselves : not in 
platoons nor in battalions as the British workman 
fights his Cotton Factor or his Iron Founder, or as 
the various trades, the Mason, the Carpenter, the 
Crispin, the Bricklayer, the Machinist, the Plasterer, 
the Stone Cutter, the skilled workman in Iron, in 
Wood, in Leather, in Grains, in Textures, in Mines, 
in Soils, separate themselves into Units for self-vin- 
dication, and as Units are invariably overthrown; 
because in these Monarchies they have no common 
basis to stand on, no common remedy to resort to, 
no voice potential to utter, no power of election to 



wield, no Presidential nor Legislative Agency to 
select, obedient to the will of Labor and controlled 
by the influence of its opinion, expressed at the Polls. 

THE INTEREST OF ALL LABOR A UNIT. 

Labor, however divided into many forms, has but 
a single and a united interest, and the injury done to 
• any grade or trade thereof, vitally affects the whole. 
No branch of the public service, but the mechanic 
is found in its van, and the highest office in the gift 
of the American people, is just now in the charge of 
a man who has, not many years past, earned his live- 
lihood by his labor. 

LABOR, THE GREAT MASTER, QUALIFIES MEN FOR EVERY 
DUTY OF LIFE. 

Nor does the pursuit of the works of the Great 
Master unfit the citizen for the successful perform- 
ance of the responsible duties that arise on the oc- 
casions when the destinies of nations become involved, 
for when the blow was struck to shatter this Union 
into fragments, it was warded off, you will find, by 
soldiers who had ceased to know or never knew war 
as a profession, and had stepped from the multitudi- 
nous ranks of peaceful labor for the purpose. 

AMERICAN LABOR AND EUROPEAN LABOR STAND ON 
DIFFERENT GROUNDS. 

No common interest exists between American 
labor and European labor for them to combine on. 
In England, labor, skilled or unskilled, is a serf with- 
out exception, possessed of no power of authoritative 
utterance, and driven with dogged determination to 
resort to self-destruction for moody revenge. In 
America labor is the Lord of the polls, and has but 
to elect its Agency to carry out its policies. The 
American mechanic can only sympathise with his 
European brother, and aid him by his pattern alone. 

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN AMERICAN LABOR AND CAPI- 
TAL MUST NEEDS BE EARLY DISPOSED OF. 

That the question of the relations between labor 
and capital must be promptly taken up, and analysed 
with the skill and courage of Legislative anatomy, to 
the end that the duties which each owes the other be 
ascertained and no extortion tolerated, in order to 
the restoration of harmony between these unbound- 
ed interests which never should have been ruptured, 
for the welfare of the whole, has now become im- 
perative, so as, if nothing else, to avoid an entangling 



3 



alliance between dissociated powers in America and 
Europe, in a form which the insight of the founder 
had not foreseen, but has none the less warned us 
against. 

LABOR A NATIONAL, NOT A LOCAL OPERATOR. 

This is the vital policy, practicable and competent, 
for American labor in all its grades and professions to 
adopt, and the present is the opportunity to enact it. 
Labor is a national not a local operator, and as it 
holds in its hands all the winning points it should . 
play them for its own profit in the National contest 
of 1872. 

CANDIDATES ON THE OTHER POLICIES ALREADY IN THE 
FIELD. 

There are important public policies submitted to 
• the iudement of the American people, to be passed 
upon by them soon, and the Representatives of these 
policies are already selected as Presidential Candi- 
dates for election ; they are open to the scrutiny of 
oppressed labor especially, and independent of the 
attitude which each of these gentlemen occupies on 
the minor questions— as Labor deems them— their 
published declarations, and above all, their action 
heretofore on the subject of the rights of American 
labor, are of intense importance. 

MR GREELEY'S SCOPE OF AVOWAL AND ADVICE ON THE 

LABOR QUESTION A WIDE ONE. HAS HE 

MADE PROPER USE OF IT ? 

A wider scope of avowal and advice in behalf of 
American labor has been within the reach of the 
good fortune of one of these candidates. For more 
than a quarter of a century, Mr. Greeley has filled 
the station of an exalted Journalist, a Public Adviser, 
whose judgments were spread out world-wide in a 
daily press of large circulation; he is a gentleman ot 
observation and industry, anxiously ready to grapple 
with theories, and self conscious of a capacity to 
sound the profoundest depths of all economies and 
of all logics. He who should dare cast a doubt upon 
his ability to know all that newspaper man knows, 
would come under the peril of his pride ; yet during 
the long period he has presided over the functions o 
the Press its columns are entirely innocent of any dis- 
cussion of the rights of American labor; the sing- 
song praises of its higher amount of wages compar- 
atively and which is owing to its dearth alone, are 



scattered through his pages profusely, as they are 
found echoed in the mouth of every Penny Politician 
and in the columns of every puerile Journal in the 
country; but the profundities of the economy which 
should regulate the joint interests of labor and capital 
have never been plumbed by his surface pen, nor 
ever comprehended within the precincts of his showy 
philosophy. 

OUTCRY OF RAVENOUS PARTIZANS AND ABSURDITIES O f 
BI-FOLD NOMINATIONS. 

The methodical out-cry of ravenous partisans and 
the absurdities of bi- fold nominations so contradictory 
and conflicting as to make their political action atro- 
cious, devoid of all principle and repulsive to every 
tradition of the Republic, may be endured or laughed 
at by the labor of the country in other days ; but a 
crisis has now arrived which will not tolerate this 
toleration. European combinations have spread 
themselves in every city of the Union, and the Labor 
wisdom of the country, of which Mr. Greeley is no 
thorough exponent in emergencies, whatever of her 
other qualities he may know and illustrate, must 
interfere to stay the plague. 

APPEAL TO THE HISTORY OF THE GRANT ADMINISTRA- 
TION FOR A DIFFERENT POLICY IN RESPECT 
TO LABOR. 

We appeal to the history of the present adminis- 
tration, if President Grant has not spoken and acted 
altogether differently ; his enunciations in the behalf 
of American labor are official and of record ; they 
are manifestly all his own, without any promptings 
from advisers other than his pure convictions ; the 
squander of the Public Lands on Railroad Corpor- 
ations, which Mr. Greeley has pushed to such an 
extreme, with an intensity of endorsement which 
stopped at nothing, the President has peremptorily 
stayed, and thus reserved the National Domain in the 
future for the homestead use of the labor of the 
country; a majestic policy more full of good feeling, 
common sense and lasting benefits to the Republic 
than all the thin theory his philosophic competitor 
has woven for a lifetime. President Grant is not 
great and loquacious on paper agriculture, and it be- 
hoves American labor to see to it that the Railroad 
Proteges of the Honorable Ex-Journalist be not 
again restored to power. 



GRANT THE FIRST PRESIDENT WHO HAS PRESENTED 

THE WRONGS DONE AMERICAN LABOR BEFORE 

THE NATION. 

No other President than Mr. Grant has presented 
to Congress in his messages the question of the 
wrongs which American labor suffers, for solution; 
National attention was never before drawn to this 
most vital subject, nor was the indifference, nay con- 
tempt, with which labor appeals were before without 
exception treated by the Press and the Congress, 
corrected and silenced until the authoritative voice 
of President Grant gave them recognition and pres- 
tige. Since then labor fills the largest space in public 
recognition, and even the haughty Democracy, which 
occupied office for fifty years with no other treatment 
of American labor than neglect and coldness, now 
begins to feel it is a power in elections and pays it 
some small attention. 

PROOF OF HIS ACTION IN BEHALF OF AMERICAN LABOR. 

We have the honor to present the following official 
papers : 

Extract from President Grant's message to Con- 
gress, $t/i Dec., 1870. 

"The construction of some of these thoroughfares 
(Railroads) has undoubtedly given a vigorous impulse 
to the development of our resources and the settle- 
ment of the more distant portions of the Country. It 
may however be well insisted that much of our Legis- 
lation in this regard has been characterized by indis- 
criminate and profuse liberality. The United States 
should not loan their credit in aid of any enterprise 
undertaken by States or Corporations, nor grant lands 
in any instance unless the projected work is of acknow- 
ledged National importance. I am strongly inclined to 
the opinion that it is inexpedient and unnecessary to be- 
stow subsides of either description ; but should Con- 
gress determine otherwise, I earnestly recommend 
that the rights of settlers and of the public be more 
effectually secured and protected by appropriate leg- 
islation." 

President's Message — Extract — 5M Dec. 1871. 
— "I renew my recommendation that the public 
lands be regarded as a heritage to our children, to be 
disposed of only as required for occupation and to 
actual settlers. Those already granted have been in 
great part disposed of in such a way as to secure access 
to the balance by the hardy settler who may wish to 



avail himself of them, but caution should be exercised 
in attaining so desirable an object. Educational in- 
terests may well be secured by the grant of proceeds 
of the sale of public lands to settlers. I do not wish 
to be understood as recommending in the least degree 
a curtailment of what is being done by the General 
Government for the encouragement of Education." 

In conformity with the recommendation of the 
message, Mr. Hoar, member from Massachusetts, a 
Republican, introduced into the House of Representa- 
tives, the following bill creating a commission in 
which labor should have a member representing it, to 
be appointed by the President, to inquire into these 
relations, and to report to Congress, which bill passed 
the House and was reported, but not finally acted on 
as yet in the Senate. 

Copy of a bill passed the House of Representatives, 
Washington, Dee. 20th, 1871, entitled: 

A bill to provide for the appointment of Commis- 
sioners on the question of wages and hours of labor 
and a division of profits between labor and capital in 
the United States. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of American Congress assembled. : 

Sec. 1. That there shall be appointed by the Presi- 
dent by and with the advice of the Senate, a commit- 
tee of three persons of whom one shall be practically 
identified with the labor interest of the country and 
who shall be selected from civil life solely and with 
reference to their character and capacity for an honest 
and impartial investigation, who shall hold office for 
a period of one year from the date of their appoint- 
ment unless their duties shall have been sooner accom- 
plished, who shall investigate the subject of wages 
and hours of labor and a division of the joint profits 
of labor and capital between the laborer and capitalist, 
and the social education of all, and the sanitary con- 
dition of the laboring classes of the United States, 
and how the same are affected by the existing laws 
regulating commerce, finance and currency, provided 
that said Commissioners shall be appointed irrespect- 
ively of political or partizan considerations and from 
civil life. 

Sec. 2. That said Commissioners shall receive an 
annual salary of $5,000 each, shall be authorized to 
employ a Clerk, and shall report the result of their 
investigation to the President, to be by him transmit- 
ted to Congress. 

Bill passed, Ayes 134, nays 36. 



N_ b. — It was strenuously opposed by Mr. Camp- 
bell, of Ohio, and the Democratic members of the 
House at large. 

Also the President's response to the Japanese Em- 
bassy wherein he vindicates before the representatives 
of one of the greatest commercial nations of the East, 
the elevation and dignity of American labor. 

RECEPTION OF THE JAPANESE. 

Washington, March 4, 1872.— The Japanese Em- 
bassy was presented to the President to-day, and a com- 
plimentary speech was made by the Japanese Minister 
who introduced the embassy. It was followed by an 
address from Iwakura, and a response by President 
Grant. The members of the Cabinet were present, 
together with all the naval dignitaries, in full uniform, 
and also Vice President Colfax, Speaker Blaine, &c. 

ADDRESS OF IWAKURA. 

The following is the address of the Ambassador to 
the President, delivered by Iwakura : " His Majesty 
the Emperor of Japan, our august sovereign, has 
sought since the achievement of our national recon- 
struction to attain a more perfect organization in the 
administrative power of his government. He has 
studied with interest the results attained by Western 
nations, and having a sincere desire to establish per- 
manent and friendly relations with foreign powers on 
still closer footing, he has commissioned us as his 
ambassadors extraordinary to all Powers having trea- 
ties with Japan. 

Upon the soil of your country we first present our 
credentials, delivering to you personally the letter ot 
our august sovereign at this public official audience. 
The objects of the mission with which we are charged 
by our government are somewhat set forth in this 
letter. We are authorized to consult with your gov- 
ernment on all international questions, directing our 
efforts to promote and develop wide commercial rela- 
tions, and draw into closer bonds the strong friend- 
ship already existing between our respective people 
Thus we expect to gain fresh impulse m the paths ot 
progress, gaining good from every form of civilization. 
This we shall aim to do while in the exercise of strict 
integrity to our national interest, so trustingly confi- 
ded by a generous sovereign, and shall earnestly hope 
to receive your kind co-operation in facilitating the 
task assigned us by our government. 

We gladly avail ourselve of this happy meeting to 



convey, personally to your excellency, our sincere 
wishes for your continued prosperity and happiness, 
and, as national representatives, we extend the same 
wish to all the people of the United States. 

THE PRESIDENT'S RESPONSE. 

The President then responded : 

Gentlemen : I am gratified that this country and 
that my administration will be distinguished in his- 
tory as the first which has received an embassy from 
a nation with which the United States was the first 
to establish diplomatic and commercial intercourse. 
The objects which you say have given rise to your 
mission do honor to the intelligence and wisdom of 
your sovereign, andreflect great credit on you in hav- 
ing been chosen as the instruments for carrying them 
into effect. The time must be regarded as gone, 
never to return, when any nation can keep apart from 
all others and expect to enjoy prosperity and happi- 
ness which depend more or less upon the mutual 
adoption of improvements, not only in the science of 
government, but those of the other sciences and arts 
which contribute to the dignity of mankind and to 
the national wealth and power. 

Though Japan is one of the most ancient organized 
communities and the United States rank among the 
recent, we flatter ourselves that we have made some 
improvements on the political institutions of the na- 
tions from whom we are descended. Our experience 
leads us to believe that the wealth, power and happi- 
ness of a people are advanced by their encouragement 
ot trade and commercial intercourse with other powers, 
by the elevation and dignity of labor, by the practical 
adaptation of science to manufactures and arts, by in- 
creased facilities of frequent and rapid communica- 
tion between different parts of the country, by the 
encouragement of emigration, which brings with it 
the varied habits and diverse genius and industry of 
other lands ; by a free press, by freedom of thought 
and conscience, and liberal toleration in the matters 
of religion, not only to the citizens, but to all foreign- 
ers resident among us. 

It will be a pleasure to us to enter on that consulta- 
tion on international questions in which you say you 
are authorized to engage. The improvement of com- 
mercial relations between our respective countries is 
important and desirable and cannot fail to strengthen 
the bonds which unite us, and I will heartily co-oper 
ate in so desirable an object. 



Your kind wishes for me personally, gentlemen, are 
cordially reciprocated. I trust that your abode with 
us may be agreeable to you and may contribute to a 
more intimate acquaintance and intercourse between 
our respective peoples. 

The utmost interest was manifested by the large 
company present in the exercises. 

UNDER THE LEAD OF GRANT THE LABOR SIEGE WILL 
END IN A SURRENDER. 

Thus for the first time in the history of the country 
have the claims for legislative recognition and 
redress which labor makes, been cordially entertained 
and solemnly acted on by a President whose words 
are acts, not promises, and who undertakes no expe- 
dition but what he brings to a successful close; the 
mighty army of labor enrolled under his command 
can environ the stronghold of monopoly when reach- 
ed, and men may confidently rely the siege will end 
in a surrender. 

IT IS SUPERFLUOUS TO ADVISE AMERICAN LABOR THE 

COURSE IT SHOULD TAKE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL 

CONTEST OF 1872. 

It is superfluous to counsel those whose conviciions 
■— ^are quickened bv self-interest, whose knowledge is 
gathered from the truth of experience, and whose 
courage quails not before the clamors of a party- 
colored mob of leaders ravenous for office under 
the cry of country ; labor remembers how, when the 
chiefs of the Democratic majority of this new-fangled 
coalition last held power, they openly betrayed every 
trust they owed the Union, false as perjury to faith, 
and trampling the welfare of industry under the iron 
hoof of war, to perpetuate their supremacy ; when 
Mr. Geeley and his few followers attach themselves 
to this crowd, they become merged in the mass and 
identify themselves with the unabridged volume of the 
enemies of labor. 

THE HOSTILE RECORD OF MR. GREELEY, AND HIS CO- 
ADJUTORS APPEALED TO. 

We appeal to the record of these men. We omit 
the estrangement and the carnage of the great crime, 
but it is idle to demand of the American people to 
ignore and to forget that the result of this needless 
rebellion is the wrong labor complains of to-day, for 
no conflict ever arose with capital until superinduced 
by the enormity of civil war ; search for any combi- 



nations of labor, any trades unions, any co-operative 
engagements entered into between American freemen 
and European subjects on the question of strikes from 
the foundation of the government until the era of the 
rebellion, and you search in vain. 

INEVITABLE CONCLUSION. 

The conclusion then is inevitable, that if the leaders 
of the Democracy, the men with whom Horace Greeley 
now strikes hands so strangely, in whose bosom he 
reposes, and to whose policy he must bend beyond dis- 
pute, had kept the peace in 1861, the prosperity of 
American labor would be to-day unbroken. 

NATIONAL LABOR CANNOT BE INVOKED IN BEHALF OF 
LEADERS WHO HAVE DISRUPTED IT. 

Can national labor of whatever grade or class be 
invoked with any color of cause to aid in November 
the leaders of a once mighty party, who not merely 
disrupted the Democracy itself, but prostrated by the 
same blow the labor welfare of all parties ? and has not 
this great mishap been the main if not the only cause of 
the formation of the Republican party, which is nothing 
more than Democracy purified ? purged of the name 
as well as of the guilt of the leader's, when they be- 
came drunk with power, and aimed to perpetuate it 
at the sacrifice of all the interests of the Republic, in- 
cluding labor the chief. 

CORRUPTION CHARGED UPON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
BY THE ENEMIES OF LABOR. 

But corruption is charged upon the Republican 
patty and a determination to continue President 
Grant in office at any cost. The President himself is 
not exempt from onslaught; he accepts gifts, loves 
horses, smokes cigars and confers office on relatives ; 
these charges are set to music by their newspaper 
press, and the variations they pile on them, crowd out 
the original airs until the music itself is drowned in 
the medley. 

DEMOCRATIC LIBERTY THEORETICALLY PURE, BUT THE 

SULL1AGE OF A CORRUPT PRESS RENDERS 

THE SPARKLING STREAM UNFIT TO 

DRINK BY MAN OR BEAST. 

Democratic liberty is theoretically pure, but when 
the surface drainings and the sulliage of a corrupt Press 
flow into the sparkling stream, its waters become un- 
fit to drink by either man or beast ; a fouler flow never 
tugged itself slowly along from a slaughter house or 
the public jakes into a neighboring stream, be it the 



Hudson or the Mississippi, corrupting the waters and 
poisoning the air, than the brutal assaults daily made 
through the current of the Democratic press upon the 
unostentatious, modest and retiring man who occupies 
the White House of the Nation rather as a guest 
than as a host. This of him personally : the evenness 
of his manner, the quiet cordiality of his address, the 
absence of all pretense, the fitness with which he fills 
the lofty niche the people put him into, bespeak more 
to Americans than the fictitious tales which portray 
him a sensualist and a sport. The doctrine of the 
equality of men in a Republic was never more exem- 
plified by any President who has filled the office, nor 
has the purity of domestic life been ever better en- 
acted for daily example and endorsement, by any man 
in or out of that chair, than by its present occupant. 

CHARGES AGAINST THE PRESIDENT. 

But he accepts gifts and confers office on relatives. 
We first enter a plea of guilty, that General Grant 
admires a horse and smokes the weed ; we enter it for 
policy's sake, if nothing else, because if every voter in 
America who is equally guilty of these crimes votes 
for Grant, Greeley, who does neither, can abide in 
Chippaqua the balance of his life, or resume the tripod 
after he has recovered from his defeat. The bloated 
notices that are bestowed on the private tastes of a pub- 
lic man, which no gentleman descends to, are stubborn 
proof that his official course is unassailable. 
jefferson's nepotism. 

President Jefferson, an American authority indeed, 
has declared himself as to the impolicy of the Chief 
Magistrate conferring office upon relatives. The value 
of the advice, for it is advice merely, can be estima- 
ted by the conformity thereto of the illustrious 
founder himself; he has confuted the efficacy of his 
words by the necessity and therefore the practical 
wisdom of his action ; there is no principle involved 
in the suggestion, merely expediency, for it would be 
odious and abhorrent to enact that the kinsfolk of a 
Nation's choice were bastardized by his election ; 
had their blood tainted, and that the choice made 
of a man to rule the Republic for a term of years 
ostracised a lineage, whilst at the same time it made 
it illustrious ; this would resemble the policy of 
Asiatic dynasties which, when one branch or family 
thereof secures the throne, takes the precaution to put ' 
the others to death, lest they should afterwards dispute 
the succession. 



Mr. Jefferson observed the rule during his incum- 
bency, but violated it very becomingly before his 
death. He was elevated to the Presidency partly be- 
cause of the services rendered by him to his country, 
the same as General Grant, with this difference that 
the difficult task of the illustrious founder was to dis- 
cover and point out the orbit in which the Union 
should revolve without jar, that of the illustrious 
soldier, to keep the constellation in its course with- 
out the aberration of a single star. 

THE PUREST PATRIOT IN ALL HISTORY BEQUEATHES f HIS 
SOUL TO GOD AND HIS DAUGHTER TO HIS COUNTRY. ' 

Jefferson's services to the American people (for in 
stern truth a patriot has no legitimate claim except 
what the consciousness of duty compensates) were 
recognized by the Presidency, yet in his will he re- 
sumed the office, as it were, when he bequeathed "his 
soul to God and his daughter to his country ;" here- 
in he cancelled in effect the expediency he had before 
recommended, and asked for more than he could him- 
self give, if he had appointed his child to a Post- 
office. Nature spoke aloud, although the utterance 
may be translated into the word "pension," and the 
purest patriot in all the histories, the discoverer 
and enunciator of the doctrine of equality, the 
foundation rock of the Republic , yielded to a duty 
which nature sanctifies and good men approve. 

NO CRIME IN THE PRESIDENT TO LET HIS VENERABLE 
FATHER CONTINUE IN A COUNTRY POSTMASTERSHIP. 

It is no crime, for crime is ever secret, that Presi- 
dent Grant did not strip his venerable father of a 
country postmastership to which a predecessor had 
appointed him. Though negative, it is a pious act, 
worthy of an honest man who knew no shame in it 
and kept no secret ; the father of a corrupt President 
could easily accomplish millions as secret service 
reward ; the father of an upright Chief Magistrate 
rests content with the pittance derived from an 
humble office. 

PENSIONS ARE REPUBLICAN EXCEPTIONS, BUT NEITHER 

THE CONSTITUTION NOR THE CONGRESS, NOR THE 

REPUBLIC FORBID THE AFFECTIONS NOR CAN 

QUENCH THE LOVE OF MEN FOR THEIR 

BENEFACTORS. 

Republican doctrine pays as it goes, and regards 
pensions as exceptional. Had Washington been a 
monarchist and conquered the rebel colonists, the 



*3 

shaft that sleeps on the verge of the Potomac would 
have long since climbed into the clouds, a finished 
memorial. The widow of a British Governor Gen- 
eral of India, lately assassinated by an Asiatic fanatic, 
had conferred on her a life pension of twelve thou- 
sand dollars annually, with a reversion, by Parlia- 
ment, although the Vice-Roy had subdued no 
rebellion, nor had had even time to excite one. 
General Grant performed his military duty to his 
country satisfactorily, and drew his pay as an officer 
therefor. The genius of the Republic could confer 
no titles on him, vote him no sums of money, no 
lands nor houses, erect him no monuments, carve him 
no statues. The Constitution discountenances these 
things; but neither the Constitution nor the Congress 
nor the Republic forbids the affections nor quenches 
the love which tens of thousands of men entertain as 
warmly to-day for General Grant as for their own 
blood, on account of the personal benefits they reaped 
as the result of the restoration of their country to 
them by the quiet but determined soldier. 

THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT VOTED MEN AS A REWARD FOR 
SERVICES RENDERED SOLELY. 

The Presidency was not voted General Grant by 
the people as a reward merely for his services ; they 
believed that the man who saved the Union could 
govern it, and they believe so still ; but it is on their 
own behalf they install him. It is proof conclusive 
that President Grant as President never accepted 
gifts from any one, for had he done so, the know- 
ledge of the fact would be buried too deep for re- 
cognition ; yet all the world knows the few and com- 
paratively insignificant presents made him for his 
war services. If a man quenches the fire an incen- 
diary has set to my dwelling in which my family 
sleep, or rescues our lives in a ship wreck, I will prove 
my gratitude to the hero, and spurn the right of men 
or nations to interfere with me, nor shall any one be 
my benefactor and deny me the privilege of recipro- 
city, without the fulfillment whereof the good deed 
is but half done, through dread of calumny. 

THE DESTINY OF AMERICAN LABOR TO-DAY IN ITS OWN 
HANDS. THE PATH OF TRAVEL TO SUCCESS IS CLEAR. 

The labor of the United States has to-day its own 
destiny in its own hands ; the path which leads to 
success is blazed out in these stray suggestions so 
clearly, that every labor voter in the land can easily 
discern it : blazed out amid a wilderness of uproar 



14 

and confusion raised for the purpose of beguiling 
men by the basest combination of hostile elements 
that ever threw the Republic into confusion. 

THE CONFIDENCE DUE A CANDIDATE ' WHO BARGAINS 
TO EVADE A CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY AND A CON- 
STITUTIONAL OATH. 

What confidence can a voter, Democratic or Re- 
publican, who is interested above all other questions 
in the honest success of the Labor cause, have even 
in the oath of a candidate, who throws upon others, 
say a majority of the members of the House of 
Representatives, the responsibility of the disposal of 
a great commercial principle, "the tariff," which he 
has unswervingly maintained during a lifetime, shift- 
ing from under it himself, and solemnly avowing he 
will "approve" their judgment, although adverse to 
his own, which he bargains beforehand to repudiate ? 
Are the provisions of the Instrument baubles that 
Mr. Greeley can play with, to prove him an expert 
in political gaming? Will he nullify in advance a 
Constitutional power, the Veto, with the exercise of 
which a President is charged by the fundamental 
law as a duty he dare not evade? Has it been even 
breathed before that a Presidential candidate ever bar- 
gained with a body of the constituency of the 
Republic, that to secure their nomination he would 
guarantee in advance a breach of the Constitution in 
one of its vital provisions, which he had to swear in 
the presence of the American people he would 
"preserve, protect and defend" before he entered 
upon the office?* Has the gentleman ever read the 
Constitution of the country understandingly? If so, 
that oath, above all, could not escape him, and he 
knew its binding efficacy when he made this astound- 
ing contract. 

THE CONSTITUTION QUOTED ON MR. GREELEY. 

"Every bill which shall have passed the House of 
Representatives and the Senate shall before it becomes 
a Law be presented to the President of the United 
States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he 
shall return it with his objections, to that House in 
which it shall have originated, who shall enter the 

*NOTE. — Before he (the President elect) enter on the execu- 
tion of his office he shall take the following oath or affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States, and will to the best 
of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of 
the United States." — Sec. I, Art. 2, of the Constitution of U.S. 



J 5 

objections at large on their journal and proceed to 
reconsider it." — Sec. 7, Article 1, Constitution of 
the United States. 

"If he approve he shall sign it," saith the Con- 
stitution imperatively; but saith Mr. Greeley. "If 
the House approve, although I disapprove, I shall 
sign it." Where here is the mock philosophy and the 
boasted honesty we hear of? It is a precious 
promise which has no pattern anywhere outside the 
door of a gambler's den, where fraud is the prin- 
ciple of the lot and principle the profit. 

greeley's ambition a coward, and his heart would 

fail him to write himself down " perjurer." 

he would cheat the democracy. 

Nor do we believe the gentleman would keep faith 
with the Democracy. The man who could enter 
into such a compact is but an ambitious coward, and 
his heart would fail him when he was about to write 
himself down "perjurer;" the genius of the Consti- 
tution would arrest him in the act, and fear in the 
absence of courage would save him from himself.* 

What becomes of the Constitutional virtue of Mr. 
Reverdy Johnson and of Mr. Charles Sumner, who 
sustain or are about to sustain Greeley's perfidy? 
They are dragons of Constitutional virtue no more. 
What becomes of the American people, if they fail 
not to elect a man who promises if elected to trample 
on their Constitution, although he swears to it? 
Greeley's contract poisons the political element, and 
men turn up and die in shoals in the polluted stream. 

There is but one honest candidate as yet before the 
American people for the Presidency. 

*NOTE. — Senator Hendricks, a man of ability, and a man of 
purity otherwise, indorses this political turpitude ; he must feel 
a profound contempt for the intelligence of the masses of his 
party if he expects them to be convinced by force of his sham- 
bling indorsement of the Greeley bargain. 

The fierce bark of the honest watch dog announcing that a 
burglar had broken into the Old Homestead, and was plun- 
dering it of its valuables, the jewels of the past, worn by 
Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and the rest, was kicked out of 
Voorhies, and the mastiff himself compelled to slink back into 
his kennel with a sullen growl. 

The tenants of the tombs at Monticello and the Hermitage 
have turned in their graves and have set their faces against 
the nomination at Baltimore. " Cincinnati we know not, 
for it was mongrel. But Baltimore raised our banners, then 
lowered them in the dust and sullied them. We repudiate her 
proceedings. Philadelphia altered our name, but saved our 
principles. We accept the change." 



i6 

THE DAY OF PUBLIC MEETINGS AND OF NEWSPAPER 
H0WLING3 GONE BY, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DE- 
MANDS OF AMERICAN LABOR. 

Labor of America ! — The day of public meetings 
is gone by — their utility, if they ever had much, is 
lessened in the presence of the responsibilities of the 
coming election. The severe duties of self-govern- 
ment are invoked more seriously now than ever be- 
fore during the existence of the Government. Let 
no man or party divert you by impassioned address, 
artful resolution, loud denunciation, _//'<?/// _)w/r single 
purpose, viz. : the Restoration of Labor to its Consti- 
tutional Rights of which it has been plundered by the 
violence of a Democratic Rebellion — and so of the 
newspaper press, the Democratic branch of which is 
filled, like the dead fruit tree, with political poison 
and death. 

THE ANNIVERSARY OF I 776 AT HAND ; THE CONDITION 
OF LABOR THE TEST OF ITS CELEBRATION. 

We are approaching the anniversary of the most 
important political drama ever enacted among men. 
Marvels have followed from its successful perform- 
ance. There are no such pages in history as the 
recorded acts of these men fill. On land and sea, but 
above all, in Council and in Constitution, they stand 
like the Evergreens of California, unequaled in altitude 
as in compass. The populations of old Europe, 
hounded and exiled, have taken shelter under their 
shade and have lodged them in their branches. 
This heritage must not be again imperilled, nor con- 
fided to the charge of men who once before sought to 
enter into a deed of partition of it among the heirs. 
The labor of the land, marshalled on many a battle 
field, denied severance in thunder tones, and fought 
it down. Woe ! to the battle field ! it is accursed. 
The wrongs of labor are of its fruits, and the votes of 
labor alone, in peaceful process at the polls, are 
omnipotent to redress them for all time. 

UNITED ON THE SINGLE ISSUE OF ITS OWN INTEREST, 

The vote of American labor holds the mastery, with 
ease ; divided by the slander of orators and the how- 
lings of the press, and bewildered by the discussion 
of questions in which oppressed labor has but a theo- 
retic interest, Greeleyism seeks to steal into power. 
In this case, the celebration of the anniversary of 
1776 and all its old glory will be but a mockery and 
an insult to American labor. 



GRANT AND WILSON THE POOR MAN'S 
FRIENDS. 



\ 



General A. M.Winn is a life-long Democrat, and a leading politician 
of California. He is a man of high character, and his sympathies 
all being with the people, he has for years jealously devoted his time 
and energies for the benefit of the laboring classes, and on account of 
his devotion to their cause, he has endeared himself to them. 

He declares himself in favor of the election of Grant and Wilson, 
and below we give his reasons in extenso, and invite the careful pe- 
rusal of our readers. General Winn says : 

I am asked why 1 consider ( Irani a less evil than ( Ireeley ? There's the rub ! I 
will give the reason for my belief: Grant was a Democrat up to the beginning of the 
war. It was so doubtful about his change of opinion after it was over that the Demo- 
cracy talked of nominating him for President then and would have done so if the 
Republicans had not. Has he changed since then? We.shall see. The Democracy 
is the poor man's friend. The party has adopted the eight-hour system of labor, as 
a party measure. This interests more than half the voters of the United States. 
When Congress had the Kight-hoiir bill under consideration, there was a mighty 
struggle between right and wrong. In the House the Democrats caucussed upon it, 
and supported it as a parly measure. The Republicans could not afford to allow 
them to carry on such a stroke of policy. They too, caucussed; and also made the 
Eight-hour law a party measure , and it passed the House unanimously. In the Sen- 
ate, Morrill, of Vermont, tried to kill the measure with amendments. He proposed 
to so amend it as to reduce the wages one-fifth for all men working but eight hours. 
As only eleven Senators voted for it, the amendment was lost. On its final passage, 
only six Senators voted against it, and the Eight-hour 1 .aw was signed by the Presi- 
dent, at which a nation of workingmen rejoiced, and other nations of producers saw 
belter times in the near future. The superintendents at the Public Works refused to 
comply with the law. and required of the'workingmen just what Morrill's lost amend- 
ment proposed. The workmen appealed to the Secretaries of War, Navy and 
Treasury Departments. The beads of these Departments sustained their subordin- 
ates, and refused to pay a full day's wages for eight hours' labor. Then followed an 
appeal to the Attorney-General, who also sustained the rulings of the Secretaries and 
their subordinates. All the leaders in power thus perverted the intention of the Act 
of t Congress, The poor man's path seemed to be completely blocked. Not a beam 
of hope cast a gleaming light upon his darkened prospects. The hopes of more than 
two millions of hard-working men were cast down. As the telegraph told the sad 
story in the i itit-s of the Union, the hearts of the poor men were burdened with sorrow. 
They were disgusted with the deception that had been practiced upon them. 

As soon as they recovered from the shock, they looked about for a friend to advo- 
cate their cause. Senator Wilson, who is now a candidate for Yice-Presidtnt on the 
Grant ticket, undertook to lay the poor man's cause before the President. Armed 
with law and justice, he appealed to ('.en. Grant. For this great service to the work- 
ingmen, (Irani and Wilson were denounced by the opponents of the labor movement 
and by the manufacturers. Wilson was ridiculed as a shoemaker ; but, like a bold, 
brave and good man, he continued his efforts in behalf of the toiling poor. He con- 
sulted with the President as a last resort. What a proud moment for a President ! 
Millions of wealth had succeeded throughout the subordinate branches of the Gov- 
ernment. No one thought for a moment that General Grant, backed by the Attorney- 
General and by the opinions of all the heads of Departments, would attempt to ren- 
der a different decision. Smiles of defiance covered the faces of the poor man's 
enemies, while faces of the mechanic and laborer were wrinkled with despair. I 
recollect distinctly the depre sing effect it had upon the mechanics and other laborers 
in this very city of San FrancUco. Hut it was the 'Darkest hour just before the 
breaking of the day ' The President rose above the petty spite of the sycophants 
who surrounded him, and daring to do justice to the poor men, he issued his famous 
proclamation, that wages must not be reduced because of the reduction of hours. In 
a few hours the telegraph told the story in every.city in the Union. What a glorious 
day for Grant and for the toiling masses. A million of men, their wives and children, 
praised the act which elevated them in the social scale. The rainbow of promise ap- 
peared through the clouds of despair; tears of ioy ran down the cheeks of many a 
laboring man? a million of mechanics and laborers rejoiced in their Unions; hundreds 
tired cannons, burned fireworks, illuminated their houses, and got up memento 
parties. 



THE MISSOURI CLUB, 

The Pioneer State Club, originated on the Fourth Day of July, and organ- 
ized on the Twenty-Second of the month, is established to secure the State for 
(".rant and Wilson. Its purpose is to co-operate with, and to secure the reciprocal 
action of every Republican organization in the State,— to stimulate the formation 
of new Clubs in every advisable locality,— and to secure active, energetic force 
and combination throughout every county, Township, Ward, and Schoool Dis- 
trict. 

Its government and membership combine the best Commercial, Financial 
and Political elements of the community, representing a united party, having a 
Vice-President from every Congressional District, with a view to a thorough 
canvass of the State, as a necessity to bring every vote to the polls. The Club 
is in the interest of no clique, and will not put forward the claims of any candi- 
date for nomination, but will aim to consolidate Republican sentiment, and make 
the election of nominees sure. For these ends it solicits active sympathy, and 
desires the immediate enrollment of all citizens who will work with us, whether 
heretofore active among us or otherwise. The irganization has been made on 
the basis of the following 

PREAMBLE. 

" Believing that the election of Ulysses S- Grant and Henry Wilson is 

ntinued welfare of the United States, and that to secure the 

election of efficient and incorrupt officers, to administer the affairs of the State 

of Missouri, is the duty and hope of every good citizen, the Missouri Club 

has been formed to assist in such a I 

In addition to making our Headquarters .1 Bureau for the distribution of 
National-Publications, the Club will prepare and publish for gratuitous circulation 
Campaign Tracts, having a local interest to Missouri voters, and will provide 
them in desirable quantities in both English and German. Club officers and in- 
dividuals in all ei tions of the State are requested to remember this, and to pro- 
vide for their liberal circulation. They are particularly requested to notify our 
Corresponding Secretary where they can be used to advantage, and by sending 
names of parties, with post-office address, the desired documents shall be directed 
and mailed in St. Louis, with postage paid. Attention to this will secure advan- 
tages without limit. 

Blanks for formation of subordinate branch Clubs-will be furnished in any 
quantities on application to the Corresponding Secretary. 

GEORGE BAIN, President. 
JAMES B. NICHOLSON, Ree, See'y. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

1st Congress'l Dist.-Vv.va. Picker. 7/// Dist.—S. S.Burdhtt. 

2«ii/)m/.-Hbuct C. Ybageh Bth Dist.— Rout. T. Van Horn. 

;n//)/s/.-\VM. Mohan. ',!': Dist.— Johk L. Bittinger. 

\th Dist.— CiBO. A. Moser. 10th Dist.—D. B. Dorsey. 

5th Dist.— William Bishop. nth Dist.—M. L. De Mott. 

bth Dist.— H. V.. Havens. \1tl1 Dist.— John F. Benjamin. 
13/A Dist. — Theodore Bruere. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

CHAUNGEY I; FILLEY, Chairman; E. W. FOX, JOHN GRETHER, 

ISAAC F. SHERARD, E. O. STANARD, C A. NEWCOMB, 

A . ( iUNTHER, 1 1 EO. BAIN, Ex- ( >///c«>. 

\VM. H. MAURICE, Treasurer. 

Y(T| «7i »»■»«[ wi^> i\[\\_ Secretary. 

C. L. DeRANDAMIE, Assistant Corresponding Secretary. 
All correspondence will be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary at the 
Headquarters of the Club. 



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